Although then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch told the public on July 1, 2016 that the FBI was following the "facts" in its investigation of the Hillary Clinton email scandal, and that she would "accept their recommendations" on whether prosecution was merited or not, recently released phone texts from senior FBI attorney Lisa Page indicate that Lynch apparently already knew "no charges" would be filed against Clinton.

The texts also show that FBI Director James Comey had started writing an exoneration of Hillary Clinton months before the case was concluded and before Clinton had even been interviewed.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch made her remarks during an interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival on July 1, 2016, four days after she had met with former President Bill Clinton on her DOJ plane in Phoenix, Ariz. (Hillary Clinton was under investigation for her illicit use of a priavte email server and her mishandling of classified documents as Secretary of State.)

During the festival interview with Washington Post writer Jonathan Capehart, Lynch said, "[T]his matter will be handled by the career people who are independent. They live from administration to administration. Their role is to follow the facts and follow the law and make a determination as to what happened and what those next steps should be."

"This [email] case, as you know, has generated a lot of attention," said Lynch. "I will be informed of those findings as opposed to never reading them or never seeing them. But I will be accepting their recommendations and their plan for going forward." [Emphasis added.]

The implication is that Attorney General Lynch has no idea what the FBI will recommend.

However, on Feb. 7, 2018, the Senate Homeland Security Committee released a report, "The Clinton Email Scandal and the FBI's Investigation of It," which includes thousands of phone texts sent between FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Both Page and Strzok were vehemently anti-Trump, and they both were involved in an extra-marital affair with each other.

Some of the phone text exchanges on July 1, 2016 between FBIofficials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. "Inbox" is Strzokand "Outbox" is Page. (Source: SenateHomeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)

Those texts show that on July 1, 2016, Page, a senior FBI attorney, texted to Strzok, a lead counterintelligence officer, about Lynch's pledge to follow the FBI's recommendations.

"It's a real profile in couragw [sic], since she [Lynch] knows no charges will be brought" against Hillary Clinton, texted Page.Four days later, then-FBI Director James Comey, an Obama appointee, held a press conference at which he exonerated Hillary Clinton of any wrongdoing.

Two days later, July 7, Comey testified under oath before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He said that he "did not coordinate [his July 5 statement about Clinton] with anyone. The White House, the Department of Justice, nobody outside the FBI family had any idea what I was about to say."

Nonetheless, some of the released phone texts show that Strzok and other FBI agents were aiding and editing Comey's statement on Clinton.

"In Comey's final statement, even the reference to 'another senior government official' might have been viewed as too incriminating, and it was stricken altogether," stated the committee report. "Section 793(f) prohibits having knowledge, and failing to report, the existence of national defense documents that are mishandled through gross negligence."

"The changes in Director Comey's statement to delete the reference to President Obama-taken with the President's April 10 statements about the investigation-raise questions about whether the FBI sought to downplay President Obama's role or awareness of Secretary Clinton's conduct," said the committee.

Michael writes for CNSNews.com. He has worked as a writer for The McLaughlin Group; associate editor of Consumers' Research magazine; associate editor of Human Events; editorial page editor of The Lima News; journalism fellow for The Phillips Foundation; editorial writer and national issues reporter for Investor's Business Daily; and editorial director of the Cato Institute. Michael graduated with Special Honors in English (B.A.) from the University of Chicago. He lives with his wife, Claire, and their five children in Virginia.

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